It is common practice to use flat conductor cables having a plurality of side-by-side coplanar conductors in an insulating sheath for making interconnections in many types of electrical devices such as computers and other complex electrical equipment. The connectors used for such flat cables are generally designed such that the connector can be installed on the cable by merely locating the cable in alignment with the terminals in the connector and pressing the cable into the wire-receiving slots of the terminals. A variety of machines are available for performing the operations of installing the connectors on the cable ranging from extremely simple machines to relatively complex machines which have feeding systems for feeding the connectors to an application zone and a press in the application zone for installing the connectors on the cables. Ordinarily, connectors are supplied to the user as loose piece items and, where the machine has a feeding means for feeding the connectors to the application zone, the loose piece connectors are stacked in a magazine and advanced, one at a time, into the application zone when the machine is operated.
The connectors of the type commonly used comprise an insulating housing having a rectangular cross section and having parallel sidewalls and parallel endwalls. It is possible to install an individual connector on a cable in either of two possible orientations and the particular orientation chosen will determine which conductors in the cable are connected to predetermined terminals in the connector. The cable will extend towards one of the elongated sidewalls of the housing with the end portions of the conductors connected to the terminals in the housing when the connector is in one of the two orientations and will extend towards the other (opposite) sidewall when the connector is in the other orientation. It is a desirable feature in applicators of this type that the applicator machine have the capability of installing the connector on the end of the cable in either of the two possible orientations. While some machines do have this capability, none of the presently available machines has this capability and, in addition, the capability of feeding the connectors from a reel which is wound on a belt. The presently available machines are designed such that they will accept only loose piece connectors.
The present invention is directed to the achievement of an improved applicator for installing connectors on the ends of flat cable which has an automatic feeding or delivery system for delivering the connector housings to the application zone of an applicator in either of the two possible orientations. The invention is further directed to the achievement of an applicator which has the above-mentioned orientation feature in combination with a feeding system for feeding connectors mounted on a belt towards the applicator and delivering the connectors in the desired orientation to the applicator.